This Changes Everything [PART 2] | Mark Pugh | Sunday 8th March

[00:00:03] So a couple of weeks ago, I began a series on the Gospel of John. [00:00:09] I never started studying this to bring a series, a sermon series. I started studying for my personal walk and devotion with the Lord, but was so blessed by the treasures that I was discovering that I thought it might be good to share them with you. So welcome to my study and my prayer room. [00:00:31] And welcome to just opening the Scriptures with me and just looking at what God is wanting to say through this. [00:00:39] Last time, we looked at John's gospel, chapter one, verses one to five. [00:00:44] We're going to pick up from verse six to 13. [00:00:48] And it says these words, God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. [00:01:00] John himself was not the light. He was simply a witness to tell about the light. [00:01:06] The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. [00:01:12] He came into the very world he created, but the world didn't recognize him. [00:01:17] He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. [00:01:22] But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. [00:01:30] They are reborn not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. [00:01:42] Most believers love the idea of light, but few welcome what light does. [00:01:51] You see, darkness allows people to avoid clarity, to have excuses as to why they didn't do something that being pulled over by the police because you've been going over the speed limit and to wind the window and say, I'm really sorry, I didn't realize what the limit was here. [00:02:15] Sometimes the defense of not knowing the rules becomes something that can become a mode of operation in our life that causes us to have the ability to squirm out of things, to talk our way out of things. [00:02:32] And that ambiguity can become a friend in our life. [00:02:36] But light eliminates ambiguity. [00:02:40] It reveals, it interrupts. [00:02:44] It forces us to come to a place of decision. [00:02:48] As clarity comes, the ambiguity goes. And light forces us to come to a place of choosing whether we will act according to the revelation that we received. [00:03:00] And this is exactly what this passage is talking about. See, the Greek word for light here isn't just like an illuminated truth. [00:03:11] It's not just a light that shines and reveals something. The Greek for this word light is the ultimate light. [00:03:21] It supersedes every other light. It's uncompared, it's not dim, it's not vague. [00:03:31] It's the light that supersedes all light. [00:03:34] I love that verse in Revelation 1:6 where it says, john Speaking of our Savior says his face was like the sun in all its brilliance. [00:03:46] There's no ambiguity about that. [00:03:50] Of course, John would have been used to seeing the Mediterranean sun rise. He knew what sun was. If an English person wrote this, we might wonder if they knew what they were talking about. [00:04:02] But this light is not sentiment, it's not nostalgia. [00:04:06] It's an absolute, in your face confrontation with truth. [00:04:15] God always sends a witness before he sends a move. [00:04:25] And this passage opens with that pattern, that model. [00:04:32] It says in verse 6, God sent a man, John the Baptist. [00:04:38] Now, John's ministry wasn't an off the cuff thing. It wasn't some young boy who'd done good. [00:04:45] John the Baptist was anticipated. [00:04:49] The prophets, they said that a forerunner would prepare the way for the Lord. [00:04:55] Isaiah 43 says, Listen. It's the voice of someone shouting, clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord. [00:05:05] Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God. That was a prophecy that foretold John the Baptist. [00:05:13] Malachi 3:1 says something similar, describes a voice in the wilderness. [00:05:19] And when John the Baptist appeared preaching repentance, it was a signal to Israel that the prophetic clock was moving again. [00:05:30] Because for 400 years, God was silent. [00:05:35] Can you imagine what that must feel like? [00:05:38] Can you imagine if you came to church next week and the week after and the week after and the week after, and then the month after and the month after, then the year after, and something had changed. [00:05:54] There was no sense of presence here. [00:05:57] There was no sense of God speaking. [00:06:01] There was no understanding of anointing. There was nothing that he was saying. And we were just sat around saying, Let's have coffee. [00:06:14] Can you imagine that happening? For 400 years, the clock seemed to stop. [00:06:24] God's activity seemed to disappear. [00:06:30] And then John the Baptist arrives. [00:06:35] Tick, tick, tick, the clock starts again. [00:06:39] And he appeared and preached repentance. [00:06:43] John broke the silence. [00:06:47] His presence authenticated the moment that the age of waiting was ending. [00:06:56] This is not a random emergence of a charismatic ministry. [00:07:01] This is God's plan and intention. [00:07:05] And before God releases light, he sends a voice. [00:07:16] We know, as we looked at last time, that God spoke light into being. Let there be light. And there was light before there was light. There was a voice. [00:07:28] Before revelation spreads, someone must testify. [00:07:33] And as John the Baptist enters the scene, he wasn't impressive by the world's standards. He had no position in society that was notable. [00:07:47] He had no title. [00:07:50] There was no strategic job that elevated him to positions of authority in his community. [00:07:57] He didn't seem to have much. [00:07:59] He looked Weird. He lived out in the desert. He wore camel hair. [00:08:06] He ate unusual food. [00:08:09] This wasn't someone who had become the cream of society that people admired. [00:08:13] This was a freak, someone that didn't fit into the norms of society. [00:08:23] But he had something on his life that was more dangerous than any position of authority that you and I can get allocated to us by any government or any social enterprise or any reputation of this world. [00:08:37] And let me tell you what that powerful, powerful thing is. [00:08:41] He was sent by God. [00:08:48] There is no more powerful authority or calling than someone who is sent by God. [00:08:59] See, because the kingdom doesn't advance through organizations and ministries and plans. [00:09:06] The kingdom advances through people who have been sent by God. [00:09:14] And for those of us in the room that are mature believers, this can be uncomfortable for us because it raises a question of are we sent or are we settled? [00:09:30] There's a difference between the two. [00:09:34] There are people who believe in the light and people who live like they're sent to testify about the light. [00:09:42] Church history is littered with examples of communities who have believed in the light, but they've stopped bearing witness to the Light. [00:09:55] The moment that happens, decline has already begun. [00:10:04] The most powerful thing in John's life was he was sent by God, and so are you. [00:10:16] You don't need a denominational affirmation. You don't need a structural title. [00:10:20] You don't need reputation in society. [00:10:25] You just need to be sent by God. [00:10:32] And then we read in verse 8, it says, John himself was not the light. [00:10:39] He was simply a witness to tell about the light. [00:10:44] It's interesting that this had to be put in there as an explanation, almost a correction to assumptions. [00:10:51] Maybe some people did think he was the Light. In fact, we see that intrigue. People asked him, are you Elijah? [00:11:00] There's a propensity that we have within us to idolize God's messengers. [00:11:09] We do it constantly. [00:11:11] We build movements around personalities, authors, worship leaders, celebrity pastors, charismatic leaders. [00:11:24] We'll travel to hear them. [00:11:27] We'll pay money to go and do a conference where they're speaking. We'll buy their books. [00:11:33] And there's nothing wrong with God raising those people up. The problem is the propensity that we have to mistake the messenger with the light. [00:11:48] There's been numerous scandals of people that have been idolized in Christian ministry that have fallen quite spectacularly in recent years. [00:12:02] They've probably always been there through the body of Christ. But with social media now, the word spreads a lot faster. And it feels like. [00:12:09] It feels like the whole world is unsure because we see Negative story after negative story. I have to say, I travel all over the country and I meet leaders not just in our denomination, but I meet leaders all over the country. And the vast majority of leaders are godly faithful servants of the Lord. [00:12:30] But it can create that sense of like, can we trust anybody? [00:12:35] And I think that under that there is a sense that God shines the light on our propensity to make a confused understanding of the messenger with the light. [00:12:50] And John was the apostle John, not John the Baptist write in this. [00:12:56] But he says that John the Baptist was not the light. [00:13:02] He was simply a witness. [00:13:06] I don't know whether you feel at times inadequate about the needs and the circumstances that you're called to. [00:13:13] There have been so many occasions in my life when I've been faced with a need or a dilemma or a problem or a difficulty or a pastoral concern. [00:13:23] And I've not had the experience and I've not had the resource and I've not had the ability to change it at that moment. If you think that you're the light, you will avoid those moments. [00:13:38] But if you know you are a messenger to the light, it changes. [00:13:45] John the Baptist was a messenger. [00:13:48] And those scandals that have hit people that maybe you've read their books, listened to their worship CDs, maybe visited their churches online. [00:14:01] I'm sorry for the pain of that. [00:14:04] But we also have to look at the propensity of our own heart to idolize. [00:14:10] And we have to stop being so impressed. Because the Bible is really clear that virtually all our heroes in the scripture were fallen people. [00:14:22] There are really no exceptions. [00:14:26] Look at the introduction of one of the most famous fallen people, Samson. [00:14:31] Like in verse one, we're told he has an issue. [00:14:37] He looks and sees a woman, and he keeps looking and seeing women throughout his ministry. [00:14:45] Look at David, a man described after God's own heart. [00:14:49] Look at the failure and the corruption that they're was at points in his ministry. [00:14:56] We are a community of people who are saved by grace. [00:15:01] We're not the light. [00:15:03] We're messengers of the light. [00:15:05] It's not meant to point to us, to you, even to rediscover. [00:15:11] It's meant to point to Christ. [00:15:13] He's the only one that we can shout about. [00:15:16] He's the only one that sets a standard that's beyond the standard of this world. [00:15:22] He's the only one that we can have confidence in. [00:15:28] The kingdom only has one light. [00:15:32] John understood this. [00:15:34] And a mature church must learn to celebrate voices without confusing them with the light. [00:15:44] See, light does not automatically Produce acceptance. The next line that we read is one of the most sobering statements in Scriptures. [00:15:53] It says in verse nine, the one who is the true light gives light to everyone. [00:16:01] Who gives light to everyone was coming into the world. [00:16:06] I'm going to link this with what I'm about to say in a moment. The light gives illumination to everyone. [00:16:15] So it's God's desire that the clarity, the vagueness that his light shines and creates clear revelation, understanding for everyone who gives light to everyone. [00:16:30] So maybe you've come to terms with maybe members of your family are not going to find Jesus. [00:16:36] The light comes for everyone, says in the Scriptures, it is not his will that any would perish. [00:16:44] The light comes for everyone. [00:16:47] See, that drives my theological conviction that we could see an entire city saved. [00:16:58] We could see 150,000 people in Exodus saved. [00:17:03] That's why I don't think the metric is, are our church buildings full? [00:17:08] The metric is, is heaven fully populated with the people of this city? [00:17:15] Is the southwest populated? [00:17:20] The light shines for everyone. [00:17:23] Revelation is available for everyone. [00:17:25] Truth is present for everyone. [00:17:28] Clarity has come. [00:17:31] And yet verse 10 continues. [00:17:36] He came into the very world he created, but the world didn't recognize Him. [00:17:44] This is staggering. [00:17:47] The Creator walks into his creation, and creation did not recognize Him. [00:17:57] Imagine if you set up a business, you built it, and you got 100 employees, and then one day you go into the office and they got no idea who you are. [00:18:11] They've got no idea that you pay their salary. They've got no idea that it's been your innovation that's provided their ability to pay their mortgages. [00:18:19] They don't recognize you. [00:18:22] Imagine what that's like for the King of glory, stepping into our creation, his creation, our world, and we're just like, who are you? [00:18:37] It's quite a slap, isn't it? [00:18:40] When someone says, I've heard it in football games, who are you? [00:18:45] Who are you? [00:18:47] Who are you? It's an insult. [00:18:51] Let's remove the distance of 2000 years to this understanding and ask, if Christ was to walk into most churches today, would we recognize Him? [00:19:07] Would our attention immediately be taken to Him? [00:19:14] Would we fall at his feet? Would we break open our most expensive jars of perfume and wash his feet with our hair? Well, the hair bit won't work for me. [00:19:27] Will we bow? [00:19:30] Surrender? [00:19:32] Or will we carry on and hope that maybe we might bump into Him a coffee afterwards? [00:19:44] See that picture in Revelation? That's often used as a gospel text, and it's not a gospel text. [00:19:50] It says, behold, I Stand at the door and knock. [00:19:53] I love that story where Peter is imprisoned and the disciples are praying that he will be released from prison. [00:20:04] And miraculously, the doors open in the prison and an angel leads him out and then takes him to the house where these praying people are. And he knocks on the door and they. A servant comes to the door and like, yes, can I help you? It's Peter. [00:20:20] Don't wind me up. Peter's in prison, closes the door. Peter's still on the doorstep. Like, the answer to prayer is at the door and they're not seeing it. [00:20:33] Jesus said in Revelation, I stand at the door and knock. [00:20:37] We just go to the door and it's like. [00:20:41] So we're a bit busy at the moment. [00:20:43] We got a building program on. We've got courses happening. [00:20:47] We've got running around trying to get the kids program. [00:20:51] We're busy. [00:20:55] But this wasn't just about busyness. This was. They did not recognize him. [00:21:02] When we do recognize him, when the light is revealed as to who he is, that light avoids ambiguity. And he challenges our structures, our preferences, our reputation, our control, our religious systems. [00:21:19] And listen, I've grown up in Pentecostal circles all my life, and we've been a bit smug at times because we've said things like, oh, we're not religious, we're Christians. [00:21:33] And we talk about people who go to cathedrals and think they're the religious ones. [00:21:38] I've seen as much religion in Pentecost as I have in any other stream of church. [00:21:43] I've seen as much routine without power. I've seen as much belief without activity. [00:21:49] I've seen as many people believe they're sent, but not being sent. [00:21:54] Let's not kid ourselves. [00:21:58] We're religious, but everything that allows our activity to dominate over his presence is religion. [00:22:12] And the light can. The voice, after 400 years of silence, begins to raise his voice in the wilderness and to speak of the light. [00:22:22] And this light eliminates any of that ambiguity, offends the religious system. [00:22:32] See, because proximity to God doesn't equal a reception of God. [00:22:40] Verse 11 says, he came to his own people, and even they rejected him. [00:22:47] This isn't talking about pagans. [00:22:49] This is talking about God's covenant people. The Jews, those who had been entrusted with the scriptures, the traditions, the promises, the history, all those prophetic promises over that nation, those that had been entrusted with all of that, they did not recognize him, spent 400 years of silence. [00:23:12] You think they'd be looking out of the window saying, surely today might be a day that the Messiah will come, but they missed him. [00:23:21] Spiritual familiarity can create blindness in our lives. [00:23:26] We think we know. [00:23:28] So for example, when someone stands at the front here and they talk about the love of God, most people in this room think they know what that means. [00:23:36] We've experienced it, we've tasted it, we felt his love, but we don't know what it means. [00:23:45] Because what you've experienced is a little shaving of it. [00:23:51] The Bible says that the love of God cannot be comprehended. [00:23:55] How wide, how deep, how high is his love. [00:23:58] You can't scale it, you can't understand the complexities of it. But you can experience revelation after revelation after revelation. But I meet people, they say, oh, I know the love of God. Let's move on, get a new topic. [00:24:11] Oh, no, no, we don't see. Because our familiarity closes the door on God bringing fresh revelation into our life. That's what religion does. [00:24:21] So you can know the language, sing the songs, teach the doctrines, even lead the meetings and still fail to receive Christ in the moment that he moves. [00:24:30] I've been as many of you have throughout various times in church history. There have been times when God has done something new. And there are those who embrace it and there are those who reject it. [00:24:43] And they're both godly people. They both love the Lord, but it's just like they can't see. [00:24:50] God wants us to see. [00:24:55] Receiving Christ is not a passive belief. [00:24:58] Because what comes in verse 12 is one of the most radical promises in Scripture. It says, but to all who believed, all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. [00:25:18] How can we comprehend that we should be on our knees weeping at the reality of that we are children of God. [00:25:27] You've been adopted into his family. [00:25:30] He has loved you so much that every trace of sin and shame has been broken over your life. And you are His. That King of glory we were shouting to and singing to that throne we were gathering around. We are his children. [00:25:49] Wow. [00:25:51] He gave the right. [00:25:56] These words matter. [00:25:59] Believed is not an intellectual agreement. It means a surrender of authority. [00:26:06] Says to all who have believed, that's surrender. [00:26:11] It says, accepted him, to all who believed and accepted him. [00:26:16] Accepting Christ is to say, my life is no longer self governed, it's Christ governed. [00:26:24] And then it says, he gave the right to become. [00:26:28] Become is an established reality. This is not a want or an aspiration. This is a fact. [00:26:35] You and I who have believed and accepted have been become children of God. [00:26:42] You don't have to wake up this morning and earn your way to Him. [00:26:46] You don't have to hope that you're a child of God you have become if you have given your life to Him. [00:26:53] We have become his children, his sons and daughters. We are His. [00:27:04] As a result of that, Christ. [00:27:06] The light determines my direction. [00:27:11] He determines my values. [00:27:15] And that will shine light on the discrepancy of your values and Christ's values, of society's values and Christ's values. [00:27:28] And it's probably easier for there not to be as much light to make that as clear as it is to compromise, to have a blend. [00:27:40] But the light shines in the darkness and it's revealed. [00:27:50] Many people believe Jesus, that he existed, that he was a good man, he was a prophet even. But fewer receive him. [00:28:01] To receive him means to restructure your life around his preferences, because spiritual birth is not produced by human systems. Verse 13. [00:28:14] It breaks any sense that you and I can deserve this or earn this or make this happen, because it says that we are born again as children of God. [00:28:31] Not of natural descent, not of human decision, not of someone's will. But born of God, you can't manufacture the kingdom. [00:28:43] Spiritual birth is supernatural. [00:28:46] What a joy to speak to some people before the service who have recently given their lives to Christ. [00:28:53] What a joy to see the tenderness of heart, of God doing something new that they never thought was possible. What a joy to hear them telling the stories of people around them in their world who've known them for years, seeing that they are different. [00:29:07] Yes, you've been born again. [00:29:12] The old has gone, the new has come. [00:29:15] We are a new creation. [00:29:18] Spiritual birth is supernatural. [00:29:20] Churches can organize gatherings, but only God creates new life. [00:29:29] And we're confronted by three questions in closing. [00:29:35] Are you merely a believer or are you a witness? [00:29:41] We have been sent by God to prepare a way for the light. [00:29:50] Light spreads through our testimony. [00:29:55] It spreads through our words, our actions. [00:30:00] Silence withholds light. [00:30:04] John the Baptist didn't stand in the wilderness silently. [00:30:10] His words prepared the way for the light. [00:30:15] Your words speak into your community, speak into your friendships, speak into your home and say, let there be light. [00:30:28] So are you merely a believer or are you a witness? [00:30:32] Secondly, have you subtly replaced Christ with religion and familiarity? [00:30:41] It's possible to be deeply involved in church while being resistant to Christ. [00:30:47] If you don't believe me, have a look at the Pharisees. [00:30:55] Thirdly, are you living as someone who's truly born of God? [00:31:04] Not asking, are you trying hard? Are you living as someone who has truly been born again? [00:31:11] There's a new identity. [00:31:14] Sometimes when people are given protection, witness in the court system. [00:31:20] They are given a new identity, they are given new names, they move to new locations. They're given a new understanding of who they are. They have to learn a new story about their life. [00:31:31] And it's false though, because they remember who they are. [00:31:36] This is not that. [00:31:38] This is you having a new, a brand new birth in God. [00:31:45] As a result of that new birth. There are new desires, there's new obedience, there are new priorities, and there's a new authority in your life. [00:31:59] You may look and think, I'm not perfect, but you are being transformed from glory to glory. [00:32:08] So light in conclusion, has come into the world. [00:32:13] And if you've never surrendered your life to that light, now is the moment. [00:32:20] I'm not asking whether you've been coming to church for years. [00:32:23] Maybe. Maybe everyone around you thinks you've given your life to Jesus. [00:32:28] You might even be really involved. [00:32:32] I'm not asking you to doubt your salvation. I'm asking, have you surrendered? [00:32:36] Because you could put that right today. [00:32:39] If you've never given your life to Jesus, you can give your life to him today. [00:32:44] But will you, all of us, believe, receive and become, let's pray together, Children of God in this place, sent by God, transformed by his spirit, with the power in your life of declaring words as a sent daughter or son, Will you yield to him? [00:33:37] If you this morning have never given your life to Jesus, or if you have, but you've watered down your walk and you have walked in the shadows and not in the light, then can I appeal to you? [00:33:57] Please put that right before God this morning. [00:34:04] And maybe it's not as obvious as that for you. Maybe God has been part of your life and church has been part of your life. But there is. [00:34:13] There is. When you look and you evaluate, he is not everything for you. [00:34:19] This is a moment to allow the one who sends to send you to not simply believe in the light, but to become a messenger of the light. [00:34:32] So I'm going to pray a simple prayer that will encompass all three of those areas. [00:34:37] And then I'm going to invite us to respond in surrender. [00:34:44] I'm going to say it out loud and I'm going to ask. [00:34:48] Maybe the whole room repeats this and if it applies to you, don't just recite the words, but let it come from your heart. [00:34:55] And the prayer goes like this. [00:34:58] Jesus, I thank you that you are the light of the world. [00:35:05] You came into the darkness and you shone like the morning sun and you revealed yourself to everyone. [00:35:20] I don't want to miss you. [00:35:24] I don't want to misunderstand you. [00:35:29] I want to know you and be yours. [00:35:36] Please forgive me for every area of compromise, every area of shame. [00:35:46] I bow my knee before you and I give my life to you. [00:35:53] And I receive your new life. [00:35:57] I declare that in Christ I am a new creation. [00:36:04] The old has gone, the new has come. [00:36:08] Your spirit fills me. [00:36:11] I am more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus. [00:36:16] I am anointed and sent. [00:36:20] I'm a messenger of the kingdom and I will go wherever you lead me. [00:36:29] I will do whatever you ask. [00:36:33] I will say whatever you instruct. [00:36:37] Help me reorientate the priorities of my life and surrender completely to you. [00:36:49] I thank you that you gave me the right to become a child of God.